ATLANTA (AP) - A man who faces a possible death sentence for a killing almost three years ago filed suit Wednesday against officials of Georgia's public defender system, claiming he has been denied representation for eight months.

ATLANTA - The vast economic crisis has left scores of Georgia's houses empty, its banks shuttered and sent thousands of its residents searching for jobs even as its unemployment rate balloons to heights not seen since Ronald Reagan was president.

ATLANTA - Privacy advocates are questioning an aggressive Georgia law set to take effect Thursday that would require sex offenders to hand over Internet passwords, screen names and e-mail addresses.

Georgia joins a small band of states complying with guidelines in a 2006 federal law requiring authorities to track Internet addresses of sex offenders, but it is among the first to take the extra step of forcing its 16,000 offenders to turn in their passwords as well.

ATLANTA - Courthouse gunman Brian Nichols avoided a death penalty when a Fulton County jury failed to return a unanimous sentence, but local prosecutors are encouraging their federal counterparts to bring additional charges in hopes that Nichols could still face lethal injection.

Federal prosecutors would face higher legal standards to pursue death charges against Nichols based on the fact that one of his four victims was a federal agent. And the U.S. Attorney must first begin the lengthy process of getting approval from the Justice Department.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - An explosion in underground electrical cables blew off manhole covers and started several fires in downtown Savannah Monday morning, prompting police to evacuate several stores and restaurants, many of which were without power. No injuries were immediately reported, police said.

Police received calls around 8:49 a.m. reporting that manhole covers had been blown off at the an intersection in the heart of the downtown district, said department spokesman Gene Harley. About an hour later, firefighters had put out three separate fires where the covers blew off.

ATLANTA (AP) - A judge on Saturday sentenced the man who killed four people in a brazen courthouse escape to multiple life sentences with no chance of parole and hundreds more years on more than fifty charges.

Brian Nichols, 37, was found guilty last month of murder and dozens of other counts for the March 2005 rampage that led from a downtown courthouse to an Atlanta neighborhood and ended with his capture the next day in a suburban county.

This bill is a major overhaul of the state's approach to improving public schools. Unfortunately, this legislation will impose an unproven system of governance on schools in the state that will do little to improve student achievement, but surely will disrupt the lives of students, parents and teachers.